Bill Clinton released after five nights in California hospital

Former US President Bill Clinton was released on Sunday from a Southern California hospital after five nights of treatment for an infection, a spokesman said.

Clinton’s “fever and white blood cell count are normalized and he will return home to New York to finish his course of antibiotics,” according to a statement by UC Irvine Health doctor Alpesh Amin.

He was seen walking out of the hospital with his wife former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by his side, and the two stopped to thank the medical staff as they made their exit.

The 75-year-old former president was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday due to an infection that officials said was unrelated to the coronavirus.

An aide said Clinton had a urological infection that spread to his bloodstream, but he is on the mend and never went into septic shock, a potentially life-threatening condition.

The aide, who spoke to reporters at the hospital on the condition his name wasn’t used, said Clinton was in an intensive care section of the hospital but wasn’t receiving ICU care.

In the years since Clinton left the White House in 2001, the former president has faced health scares. In 2004, he underwent quadruple bypass surgery after experiencing prolonged chest pains and shortness of breath. He returned to the hospital for surgery for a partially collapsed lung in 2005, and in 2010 he had a pair of stents implanted in a coronary artery.

He responded by embracing a largely vegan diet that saw him lose weight and report improved health.